Saturday, December 13, 2014

12/14/14 Firefly Genius, forward, backward and sideways

12/14/14 Not being sure what to write about this week, I pulled out one of my volumes of Famous Saddle Horses by Susanne and flipped it open. There was a picture of a broodmare and her young foal. The caption identified her as Princess Firefly, and she was pictured because there was a short article on one of her older colts which had already made it to the show ring, the five gaited mare Firefly Genius. Topic chosen.

First a quick look at Firefly Genius' dam, the mare whose picture got my attention. Princess Firefly was the daughter of Golden Firefly (BHF), subject of an earlier post as the Iron Mare.http://theamericansaddlebred.blogspot.com/2013/04/4913-today-immulti-tasking-by.html
Golden Firefly was a Denmark bred mare, and she was always bred to Denmark bred stallions such as Rex Peavine and his sons Jean Val Jean and Rex Firefly. She was also bred to Denmark based stallions American Born and Ben Sory. The only exception to the rule was when she was bred to Bourbon King. The product of that mating was Princess Firefly. Princess Firefly went on to produce 10 colts by 9 different stallions. One of her daughters was Firefly Genius.

Firefly Genius foaled in 1942 and was sired by Bourbon Genius, making her line bred to Bourbon King. She was trained early in her career by Lee Roby who exhibited her in junior five gaited classes for owner Clifford Mooers. Mooers was also the owner of her grandsire, King's Genius. Firefly Genius went on to show in Amateur 5-gaited classes, and was in the ribbons several times at Louisville in large, competitive classes. She was owned in her life time by a number of saddlebred luminaries, including J. L. Younghusband, Tom and Donna Moore, and Art Simmons. As a broodmare, she never made it to the top, but she did have a couple of daughters and a couple of sons who were used as breeding horses. Firefly Genius was bred to a variety of stallions, including Ensign's Storm Warning who sired Tropical Gale, the dam of Chubasco. FireflyGenius was also bred to Marine Ace, sire of CHampions Ann Gray, Jimmy Gray and Evelyn Gray. When bred to Genius Bourbon King, she produced the breeding stallions Fire of Genius who in turn sired Ding Dang Doo, CH AVF Flaming Glory and CH Simpsonville.

Firefly Genius had another sister named Princess Morevine, who landed at Ottawa Creek farm in the 1940's and 1950's where she was the dam of many nice colts by Dr. Elrod's stallions Grey Mac, Jean Lafitte and Dr. McChord. If you've read much on this blog, you know that Dr. Elrod and Ottawa Creek Farm are near and dear to my heart.

However, Firefly Genius' full sister was the most famous of the bunch. She was Dixiana's Spring Cheer (BHF), so she made it to the Broodmare Hall of Fame. Also by Bourbon Genius and foaled in 1939, this older sister made her mark by producing Hide-A-Way's Firefly Supreme, the handsome breeding stallion owned by Jim Aikman of Acton, Indiana for most of his life. He lead the futurity sire ratings for several years and died of a heart attack at age 18 at Hide-A-Way Farms. Dixiana's Spring Cheer also produced Hide-A-Way's Curtain Call, the dam of Jim Aikman's last stallion, Hide-A-Way's Wild Country. Wild Country was also a good sire of futurity colts, and among his get were the breeding stallion Hurricane Country, CHampion Cary Grant, broodmare Wild & Lovely PH, the dam of Phi Slama Jama, and BHF member Callaway's Country Gal. Wild Country was lost in a fire at Hide-A-Way Farms in 1988, also at age 18.